IAD Interaction Design, ZHdK / Zurich University of the Arts

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IAD Interaction Design, ZHdK / Zurich University of the Arts

Interaction Design Official page We apply design thinking to real-world issues and develop novel interfaces, services and systems.

Established in 2001 at Zurich University of the Arts, IAD is an educational and research environment in which we explore and create interactive experiences. Focused on opportunities emerging in our networked society, IAD's members work on concrete projects for business clients and users, as well as pursue academic research relevant for interaction design community.

15/01/2026

“Most importantly – Trust your Gut!”

In the module Mobile User Interface, Joel and his group worked with the Apple Vision Pro to explore electromagnetism — mixing real-world objects with virtual layers to experience forces we usually can’t see.

For him, Interaction Design is about combining technology and design through embodiment in space and about that moment when complex projects suddenly come together!

From spatial interfaces to AI, from objects to complex social themes like grief and loss, our programme is are hands-on, collaborative and social.

Try things. Work with your peers. Don’t hesitate!

👉 All admission details and information regarding the homework via the link in bio.
Application Deadline: 26 January!

13/01/2026

What if everyday objects had feelings — or at least acted like they did? 🤖🧻

In the module Robotics & AI in the 3rd semester BA Major Interaction Design, students explore what happens when things around us start to sense, speak, and respond.

Olivier Jutzet’s group turned an invisible everyday object into something strangely alive: an AI-powered, talking toilet paper dispenser placed in one of our most private spaces, the bathroom.

A playful way to question automation, care, and how much we really want machines watching over us.

For Olivier, this kind of open, experimental project is what he enjoys; having the freedom, infrastructure and time to build things and trying out ideas.

👉 All admission details and information regarding the homework via the link in bio

&AI

09/01/2026

“One year ago, I was at the exact same point as you are right now – today I’m studying Interaction Design in the 1st semester!”

Fabio from the 1st semester BA shares insights into his very first project. Combining technologies such as machine learning, material based interactions as well as critical design methods is at the core of Interaction Design.

🪩 Apply now for the BA & MA Major Interaction Design at Zurich University of the Arts!
👉 All admission details and more via the link in bio!

20/11/2025

Interfacing Ecologies with Anna Lerchbaumer & Kilian Jörg

LET'S GET SICK WITH IT!
MA Interaction Design in collaboration with MA Industrial Design
Thursday 27 November 2025
16.00 – 17.00
Zoom (link in bio)
Hosts: Rasa Weber & Lukas Franciszkiewicz

Leached soils, acidified seas, polluted atmospheres. We are haunted by the repressed. We can no longer escape its poison. LET´S GET SICK WITH IT!
What changes when we religiously worship the power of toxicity? Can a cosmic connection be achieved in our time of disaster through a cult of pollution?

The project Toxic Temple by Anna Lerchbaumer and Kilian Jörg is an art-project gone speculative religion that venerates what will outlast us on this planet: plastic waste, nuclear toxins and cemented soils. In long-durational performances and multi-media installations they create shrines for the inner contradictions, absurdities and risks of modern life.

Anna Lerchbaumer
explores the intersection of gender, technology, and environmental issues, drawing inspiration from the historical and contemporary dynamics of femininity, domesticity, and the role of technology in shaping—and often obscuring—these narratives.
annalerchbaumer.com

Kilian Jörg
works both artistically and philosophically on the topic of ecological catastrophe and how its transformative forces can best be imagined and deployed.
kilianj.org

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The Interfacing Ecologies lecture series explores how interactions take place in more-than-human worlds and how we can access these interactions in the field.
With guests from various disciplines and fields, we ask how we can formulate and put into practice new understandings of interactions in environments and ecologies, and how we might deal with these challenges that are so close to life.

Images: Anna Lerchbaumer & Kilian Jörg

19/11/2025

Interfacing Ecologies with Rasa Smite

Immersive Climate Imaginaries: Towards Multisensory Ecological Knowledge
Rasa Smite

Tuesday 25 November 2025
17.00 – 18.30
Cinema 3.G02
Host: Karmen Franinović

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How can data become experience? And how might artistic interpretation turn scientific data into embodied ecological knowledge?

In her lecture, artist and researcher Rasa Smite explores how environmental data can be transformed into multisensory, emotion-evoking experiences. Drawing on Atmospheric Forest and Solarceptors, her lecture Immersive Climate Imaginaries reflects on how artistic “sensorialization” of climate data can expand scientific knowing — reshaping how we sense and connect with the changing planet.

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Rasa Smite is an artist and researcher working at the intersections of art, science, and immersive technologies. She holds a PhD and is Principal Investigator of the SNSF-funded project Immersion Studies of Climate Experience (2025–2028) at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). She is also co-founder of the RIXC Center for New Media Culture (Riga). Together with Raitis Smits, she creates visionary techno-ecological and immersive artworks such as Pond Battery, Swamp Radio, Atmospheric Forest, and Solarceptors, exploring the relations between nature, technology, and perception. Her works have been exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica, ZKM, HeK, and the Venice Architecture Biennale, and have received awards including the Prix Ars Electronica and the Falling Walls Art & Science Award.

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The Interfacing Ecologies lecture series explores how interactions take place in more-than-human worlds and how we can access these interactions in the field.
With guests from various disciplines and fields, we ask how we can formulate and put into practice new understandings of interactions in environments and ecologies, and how we might deal with these challenges that are so close to life.

Images: Rasa Smite

18/09/2025

Welcome! MA Crew 🧃

We are super happy to welcome our new MA students, the second generation of our new MA Major Interaction Design programme!

Happy to have you with us and to grow together!

16/09/2025

Off we go! 🚀

To all our new BA students: welcome to the first week of the semester! We’re excited to start this journey with you.

03/07/2025

IAD Business Apéro 2025

Looking back at this year's IAD Business Apéro, where our graduates shared their diploma projects with guests and friends from the industry.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, shared stories, asked questions and raised a glass with us!

📸 Johannes Reck

30/06/2025

Graduated!

We look back, proud and with a sense of privilege, to have you at IAD for the last six semesters – now the time has come and a new chapter begins. As bold and responsible designers, thinkers, artists, activists and future educators, you are ready to shape our common future.

A special shout-out to Claudio Linares Burbat, our final graduate from the ‘old’ Master’s programme. With the launch of our new BA and MA programmes under the Major-minor system, a new chapter has begun for us too.

All the best, dear graduates of 2025! 💫

📸 Duy Bui

�

26/06/2025

Chornozem is the Overall Winner of the Biodesign Challenge 2025!

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Developed by our 2nd semester MA Interaction Design students Yaroslava Shylyk , Olivia Menezes and Kirill Kohl , the project stood out among entries from 60+ leading art and design schools worldwide.

Chornozem addresses the invisible yet devastating ecological toll of war. By combining curcumin-based fluorescence with drone imaging and computer vision, the project offers a low-cost, field-scale method to detect heavy metal contamination in Ukrainian farmland — a silent consequence of ongoing ecocide.
Grounded in deep research and poetic in its form, Chornozem demonstrates how design can be an expression of resistance rooted in care.

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Course Ecological Interactions, 2nd Semester MA Interaction Design
Instructors: Karmen Franinović, Luke Franzke, Joelle Bitton and Duy Bui.

More about the project via the link in bio.

23/06/2025

Interfacing Ecologies with Sandra Bračun

Friday 27 June 2025
17.30 – 19.00
Online on Zoom
Host: Roman Kirschner and Karmen Franinović

How do different marine habitats coexist within a single bay—and how do they change over time? In this talk, Sandra Bračun offers an ecological portrait of Valsaline Bay in P**a, Croatia, based on more than 15 years of personal observation and field research. Through a guided tour of its seagrass meadows, rocky reefs, and sandy bottoms, we will meet some of the bay’s key marine inhabitants and consider how natural dynamics and human activities have shaped this coastal ecosystem over time.

— Sandra Bračun
Sandra Bračun is a marine biologist and environmental manager focusing on Mediterranean coastal systems, marine biodiversity, and microplastic pollution. Her work combines scientific fieldwork with environmental education and citizen science, and she regularly leads marine excursions and communication projects across the Adriatic region. Drawing from her long-term engagement with Valsaline Bay, she brings both a scientific and deeply personal perspective to this unique coastal environment.

Images: Sandra Bračun

**a

12/06/2025

Opening night at the IAD Diploma Exhibition 2025

A big congratulations to our graduating students and what you have achieved! We listened to the voices of s*x workers. We touched embroidered memories. We danced to the rhythms of flamenco. thank you to everyone who joined us and made this exhibition possible!

📍Galerie 1+2, 4.K13 & 5.K09 and 4.K14
🕛 Daily, 12.00–20.00, until Friday, 20 June�🥂 IAD Business Apéro: Thursday, 19 June, 18.00~20.00

Don’t forget to sign up for our IAD Business Apéro, where our students will guide you through the exhibition. We look forward to celebrating and (re)connecting with you! Register via the link in bio.

📷 Duy Bui & Johannes Lucian Reck

Adresse

Pfingstweidstrasse 96
Zürich
8031

Telefon

+41434463209

Webseite

http://iad.zhdk.ch/

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